On dealing with drought

(Note: This is part one of a two-part series on permaculture and drought. Part two will run next Sunday, and will feature more suggestions and adaptations for weathering droughts.)

As the basis of all life on Earth, water is such an everyday part of our lives that we sometimes forget its importance. That is, we forget until events like the ongoing drought in California remind us how dependent our lives are on the natural cycles that provide us with food, energy and fresh water.

Even with recent rain showers offering some relief from the worst of the drought, snowpack levels are still far below "normal." The California Department of Water Resources reports that the state has only 35 percent of its usual snow-pack as of April 4, and the northern area of the state is at about 26 percent.

"Snowpack is super critical for the North Coast," said Mark DuPont of Klamath Knot Permaculture in a recent interview. "The lack of snowpack means that we're just not going to have water stored up in the mountains. And once you get out of this fogbelt on the coast, what you find is that we actually live in a dry-land climate for half the year. A dry-land climate is where evapo-transpiration exceeds precipitation, and without the snow melting to mitigate that, we're really going to feel like we're living in a dry-land climate. So I think that in itself is going to force us to change our attitudes and our habits."

DuPont said the drought will likely result in a longer fire season, as well as a shortage of water for farmers and individuals who rely on streams, creeks and wells for their water.

"I think a lot of people are nervous. I'm seeing that this year. I live in the interior (near Orleans), and water isn't distributed evenly on the landscape. Those people who are living on the marginal springs and creeks are nervous," he said. "There's a lot of concern even for community systems, but I don't think the fact that this could be chronic rather than episodic is necessarily sinking in. ... It's tempting to think of the current dry spell as an episode that we have to weather and get through, but in reality we have no way of knowing whether we're approaching the end of a three-year drought or we're in the early phases of a 10- to 20-year drought. Tree ring and sediment studies reveal that we're now in the driest period in 400 years, but before that droughts lasting 10, 20 and even 50 years were not uncommon."

Part of the problem is that civilization's massive expansion over the past few centuries has occurred in a relatively stable period that may now be coming to an end.

"The century starting in the late 1800s was the wettest 100-year period during the past 7,000 years," DuPont wrote in an email. "This also happens to have been the time when the massive water infrastructure of the West was made -- dams were built, reservoirs filled, pipes and aqueduct laid, and far more water was promised than now exists. ... I think the biggest change has to happen up here in people's mindset. We're used to abundant water and we may not have that in our future, so it has to start from the way you treat and look at water, and the assumptions that you make that it's always going to be there in large quantities."

As the saying goes, "The only constant in life is change," and that goes for the climate as well.

"While studies of the past reveal less rainfall, climate models for the future predict far less snowpack. The Six Rivers that shape the North Coast and feed our creeks, homesteads and towns all originate in the high country and are fed by snowpack. That snow supports the entire state, from high mountain meadows and streams all the way down to coastal farms and population centers," DuPont said.

"It is the reason we can have drought and high temperatures for six to seven months of the year and still have cold, fresh water surging through our creeks and rivers. But like the rest of the world, the snow in Northern California is diminishing. In the 2012-13 season, Klamath snowpack was at 35 percent of normal. This year it is less than 20 percent. A report published in 2010 by the National Center for Conservation Science and Policy synthesizes the best climate models available and projects that within 70 years our snowpack will be virtually gone. In other words, our hydrology is changing. The question is whether our attitudes and habits will change with it, and in a timely fashion."

DuPont recommends using permaculture to prepare for climatic changes, and says it is one of the most effective tools for adapting human settlements to the environment. "Permaculture is the design and creation of sustainable human habitat," he said. "Any culture that has been in one place for a long period and lived by the cycles and seasons of that place is by nature sustainable, but ever since the Industrial Revolution, our lifestyle is predicated on massive injections of fossil fuel and a rate of consumption that far outpaces natural regeneration -- what Kenny Ausbell calls a 'mining of the past and mortgaging of the future.' Permaculture is an effort to make this all visible and re-align our habits with the cycles and seasons of our place."

Using water as an example, he said a permaculture designer first identifies how water flows through a site -- from rainfall to roofwater and stormwater -- and then examines how it is used for domestic, landscaping and gardening purposes.

Designers then work to maximize the benefits of water by slowing it down and allowing it to sink into the ground; capturing and storing it in tanks and soil; using it efficiently with low-flow fixtures and native landscaping; and then recycling graywater from sinks, showers and washing machines back into the landscape.

"This is similar to the way water moves through an intact, mature ecosystem -- slowly and circuitously, being cycled and recycled many times for many different uses along the way," DuPont said.

Adaptation strategies

Dan Mar, owner of High Tide Permaculture in Arcata, said there are a range of adaptations and adjustments that people can make to help them get through droughts. He suggests actions like replacing water-guzzling lawns with drought-tolerant plants, installing rainwater catchment systems and using graywater and laundry-to-landscape setups to make use of water multiple times.

"You've got to look at what leads to the loss of water," said Mar. "No. 1 is lack of organic material in the soil. No. 2 is not protecting the soil. So, in your garden beds, whether you've got veggies or flowers or whatever, that soil has to be protected. It has to be covered with mulches. Otherwise, your evaporation rate is huge, so you're losing a lot of that water you put in the ground. No. 3 is not choosing appropriate types of plants. Obviously, choosing plants that require a lot of watering is going to take water out of the ground that you've put in. So appropriate plant choices are important. But the most common problem I see is unprotected soil. Just bare, exposed soil that the sun is just beating on."

Mar said that about 80 percent of his current clientele are people who are concerned about conserving water, and he recently published a free brochure called "Water Through a Permaculture Lens" for those who would like to learn more about available strategies. (The brochure is available online at http://tinyurl.com/mar-water.)

"I get so many people calling me for information that I thought, 'I've gotta get something in text out there to get ahead of me and disseminate information to dispel all the scariness and the myths about this so people can start moving into this appropriately. The water issue is huge right now. We're seeing this at the national and state level -- everyone is coming to terms now with the reality of water, and we need to loosen up regulations so we can do simple things like this."

In 2012, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the "Rainwater Capture Act," exempting the capture and use of rainwater that falls on rooftops from the State Water Resources Control Board's permitting authority. That means homeowners are now allowed to capture and store rainwater for non-potable uses without an arduous permit process.

For those who are interested in catching and storing rainwater (again, only for non-drinking purposes), Mar said there are three phases to planning and implementing a system:

Step 1 -- Do the math. According to Mar's brochure, a 1,000-square-foot roof will yield 600 gallons of water from one inch of rainfall. "People tend to be cynical and say, 'Oh, it's not even raining that much.' But even the little bit of rain we've gotten has been tens of thousands of gallons already, so you don't need a lot," Mar said. "But then you've got to think about storing it, and it weighs 8 1/2 pounds per gallon. The common mistake there is that people don't start with the math, and they don't know what the potential is. They get carried away with the systems they design, because water is really heavy."

Step 2 -- Filter the water. "You want to get it as filtered as possible, so definitely use some sort of leaf debris screen in the gutter, and then a first-flush mechanism to take the sediment out. So that's another big problem, people just stick a downspout onto the top of their tank and fill it, but all of that debris is going into the tank. So you want to keep as much debris out of the tank as possible."

Step 3 -- Use and distribution. Mar said that most households will never be able to catch and store as much water as they need, so integrating a catchment system with other harvesting methods is critical. "You'd have to have a ridiculous number of tanks on your property, so it's not going to happen. ... So, once you catch the water in your tank -- and because based on the math, you're going to fill up that tank real quick -- what are you doing with the other water? That other water needs to be harvested in the soil through earth-works like infiltration basins, mulch basins, rain gardens -- stuff like that. Essentially, recharging ground water as much as you possibly can so that when you are using the water stored in your tanks or barrels, you're using it as far out in the season as possible."

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The second part of this story (which will run next Sunday) will examine other strategies that individuals and public entities can use to conserve water and weather droughts. For those who would like more in-depth and comprehensive information about ways to design homes, yards and whole communities more efficiently, Klamath Knot Permaculture is offering a six-session Permaculture Design Course starting April 17. For more information, visit http://klamathknot.com/workshops-and-events/ and http://hightidepermaculture.com.